


Sugar On The Rim

by Sleepy_Spyce



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Drinking, F/F, Sex, Ten Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27465022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepy_Spyce/pseuds/Sleepy_Spyce
Summary: Reconnected at the funeral of an old friend, Tori and Jade spend the night discovering each other all over again after ten years apart. Together they will learn all the ways time has changed them and what, if anything, has remained the same.
Relationships: Tori Vega & Jade West, Tori Vega/Jade West
Comments: 14
Kudos: 169





	Sugar On The Rim

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WasabiDuckies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WasabiDuckies/gifts).



> This fic is dedicated to Bitch and the Holograms, and everyone else on the wonderful Jori Discord server.
> 
> WARNING for the death of a character, which is neither Tori nor Jade. Also some sexy time.
> 
> This story's title was inspired by a Hayley Williams' song of the same name, which you should definitely listen to because it gives me hella Jade/Tori feels. 
> 
> Enjoy.

There was a strict no phone policy. Tori’s empty hands trembled in her lap. 

She understood why. Of course she did. People could be so horrible, she didn’t even want to think of all the ways. But she felt unanchored anyway (like a true millennial, her dad would say), a stranded ship without a line to the whole world outside.

The room didn’t have windows. Even that couldn’t be risked.

People could be so, so horrible. 

Without them, the space felt suffocated with the sweet smell of flowers. Tori was a single drop of a black-worn sea from wall to wall. The quiet hush of struggling conversation hummed in broken beats around her. Some openly cried. Others held onto each other in silence. 

Tori had come alone, and so she held onto herself. 

She thought of her friend, still vibrant and laughing and colorful in Tori’s memory, and how she would have hated all of this. 

Wouldn’t she? Tori hadn’t seen her in years except in music videos, award ceremonies, tabloids, gossip vlogs, crisis talk shows…

Tori’s version of her was nearly a decade old. They were hardly more than kids then.

The person lying in the casket at the front of the room was someone Tori didn’t know anymore. 

Her hands locked tightly together. It did not cease the shaking. 

Only once before had Tori seen a body, when she was thirteen. Her grandfather lived long and happily, and passed swiftly after a brief illness. He was old and frail and very still in his casket, well and thoroughly lived. It was painful to see him like that regardless, but Tori had a healthy understanding of death. 

This is the way it happens: you live, you grow old, you die. 

Tori’s eyes moved from her hands to the front of the room. A large photograph of a smiling redhead stared back at her.

This is not the way it happens. 

“Is someone sitting here?”

Tori jumped. Without looking up, she reached for her purse in the seat beside her. “Oh, no, I’m so sorry, please go ahead--”

With the purse moved, the person sat, and their eyes met. The pair froze in unison.

Shock chased all the words Tori had ever known from her mind, except for one. 

“ _Jade_?”

In many ways, it was as if the last ten years hadn’t touched her at all. Her eyes were just as intensely blue as Tori remembered, like the deep chasm of a glacier. The angles of her face remained sharp and severe, and she was still pale as moonlight with full curls of dark hair. The colored streaks were gone. Tori wasn’t sure why that surprised her so much. 

And like that, in so many other ways, Jade looked so _different_. The shadow of her teenage self was dwarfed by this grown woman warming up to thirty. Ten years had filled her figure and smartened her wardrobe; the dress she wore was modern and modest and, perhaps, beautiful too -- if it had been worn anywhere but here.

Jade’s lips were a perfect, crimson cupid’s bow. 

Jade blinked with recognition. “Tori.” She studied Tori with the same surprised fascination, as if she had found something long forgotten in the back of a closet. “Shit, wow. I didn’t know you were going to be here.” 

Tori’s mouth opened and closed with no sound as she struggled to remember speech. “Yeah, um, yeah I didn’t, I didn’t know you would be here either. Wow. Um.” Lost in Jade’s face again, Tori covered her mouth with one hand. Memories raced through her mind so quickly she suddenly felt very dizzy. When she blinked, fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “Oh, God. I’m sorry.” Tori fumbled awkwardly with her purse, fishing for a tissue, when Jade’s hand touched her elbow.

“Hey.” Jade offered a weak smile. “It’s okay.”

Tori’s lips wavered as she tried to mirror Jade’s expression. She did not have many memories of Jade comforting her, but like their friend, maybe the years apart had changed her so much that Jade, too, was someone Tori barely knew.

Tissue found, she wiped under her eyes. “It’s so nice to see you again,” Tori said. As soon as she lowered the tissue, more tears followed. “I wish it wasn’t like … this.”

“Yeah.” Jade looked towards the front of the room. She stiffened, breath catching in her chest. “Me, too.” 

Together, they faced Cat lying peacefully at the front of the room. The casket, the floor, the shelves, practically every inch around her was covered in a medley of various flowers. Cat always loved flowers. Framed by the beautiful petals was Cat’s serene profile, eyes closed, body still. She could have been sleeping. 

Tori didn’t know what else to do. She took Jade’s hand. 

No longer alone, they held each other. 

* * *

Tori had followed the line of people in a daze after the service, unsure of where she was going, and might have wandered off completely if Jade had not led her, still holding her hand. 

In another windowless room, long tables of food awaited the guests. Tori wasn’t hungry. After hearing story after story of Cat--as a young girl, a rising star, both from people Tori remembered and others she had never met--feeling the tangible weight of the grief in the room grow heavier and heavier, and, God, seeing her parents weep as they struggled to say goodbye to their daughter … how could she be? 

Even so, she allowed her brain to shift into autopilot and she fixed herself a plate of whatever food looked familiar. Soft music played from somewhere in the room. It took Tori a moment to realize it was Cat singing. 

These were songs she knew. She had heard them on the radio consistently over the years. When Cat hit stardom, she rode it hard. There was hardly a day that went by where Tori didn’t hear the sound of her voice somewhere. 

She would never hear a new song again.

Tori weaved through the tables until she found an empty one and sat heavily. A few moments later, Jade sat beside her once again. Tori found she could not pry her eyes from Jade’s face despite her best efforts, the only one she recognized who could still talk back to her. 

“I know I’m super hot now, but do you have to stare?” Jade raised a finely sculpted eyebrow.

A startled bubble of laughter burst from Tori’s lips. She slapped a hand over her mouth when several pairs of eyes glanced sidelong at her. “ _Jade_ ,” she hushed, voice muffled.

Jade smirked and shrugged. Tori caught a glimpse of her: the confident, bold ice queen of Hollywood Arts. 

So much had changed since then, and yet some things remained the same. 

“I just …” Tori shook her head. “It’s been so long.”

“It has.” Jade brought a plastic cup of water to her lips. “I was surprised when I got the invitation. I haven’t …” She trailed off, taking a drink and swallowing hard. “I haven’t talked to Cat in a long time. I didn’t know her parents knew how to contact me.” 

“Me either.” Tori put a hand to her sternum as if she could reach in and tear the guilt out of her. 

“Are you in touch with anyone else?” Jade asked. “Robbie, Andre, Beck?”

Tori shook her head. “Andre and I were in touch for a few years after graduation, but after he moved out of state … you know how it goes. You and Beck don’t talk anymore?”

Jade chuckled at a memory only she knew. “No. We dated for a while after starting college, but … you know how it goes.” She shrugged. If it had ever hurt her, it didn’t anymore. 

“Oh.” Tori perked up. “Oh my God, I remember the last time I heard your name. You were on _Wicked_.”

That earned her a smile with teeth. Tori hardly ever saw that in high school.

“The best year of my life.” Jade’s shoulders straightened with pride. 

“Our Jade West,” Tori said, smiling ear to ear. “ _The_ wicked witch. Who would’ve known?” A brief pause. “Oh, who am I kidding. We all knew you’d make it out there.”

“It probably helped that I’m a witch, low-key.”

Tori laughed. “That may or may not have been a rumor in high school.” The two women smiled at each other. “Really, Jade. That’s amazing. I’m so happy for you.”

The slightest blush touched Jade’s cheeks. She looked at her plate of untouched food. “Thanks.” One hand rubbed the opposite arm. Tori could tell Jade was eager to have the attention off of her. “What about you?” Their eyes met again. “What have you been up to all this time?”

Tori’s smile faded at the corners. She shifted in the chair and placed her hands on the table, then put them back in her lap, then shifted again. “Well, you know. Nothing quite as grand as you or Cat--” The name caught in her throat. The smile fell away completely and her head lowered. “God, Cat.” 

Silence unfolded between them. When Tori closed her eyes, the table she sat at was the lunch table in the courtyard of Hollywood Arts. Friends were all around her. Above all the chatter was Cat’s singsong voice rattling off another fantastic tale that no one was sure was fantasy or not. Her lovely laugh was still preserved perfectly in Tori’s mind. 

But she wanted to _hear_ it. 

She would never hear it. 

“I didn’t know.” Jade’s voice trembled when she spoke. She wrapped both hands around the cup of water as if it would steady her somehow. “I mean, we all saw her on those shows. We all knew she was getting … bad. But I never thought, I mean. Who thinks this could happen?”

Tori shook her head slowly, threading her hand through her hair. “I can’t … even when I saw her on TV, it was like seeing a different person, you know? The Cat I knew …” Tori trailed off. She took a deep breath. “But I hadn’t known her for years. She must have been in so much pain.”

Jade’s hands suddenly went to her face. Tori turned to look. Jade was crying.

“Oh, Jade.” Tori dug into her purse and produced another tissue. “Here.”

Jade took it wordlessly and quickly brushed under her eyes. Sniffling, she stared hard at the table in front of them. “It doesn’t seem fair to be so sad. I haven’t spoken to her since we were, like, twenty-one. We just, we went in different directions.” She indicated this by moving her hands apart. “And suddenly she was _famous_. I was so happy for her. It was what she always wanted, to sing for the whole world. And fuck, did she _sing_.”

The two paused to listen to the sound of Cat’s powerful, beautiful voice above and all around them. Tori closed her eyes and held onto the sound until it drowned out the tremors rattling her bones. 

“She was so happy.” Jade’s voice was quiet. “When I knew her, she was so happy.”

Tori took in a long, deep breath through her nose before she opened her eyes again. “Do you think she did it on purpose?”

Jade’s eyes became unfocused for several long seconds. She shook her head. “I don’t know. I hope not. I hope it was just an accident.”

Tori crossed her arms. “Either way … it hurts the same.”

Jade nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.” She sucked in a breath and looked around. “God. I didn’t talk to her parents before they left. Should we wait until they get back?” 

Tori found it interesting, the ‘we’, as if they had come together and were now obligated to finish it together. Cat’s immediate family had left with her to have her be put to rest while the guests ate and waited for their return.

“No,” Tori said. “Maybe another time. Honestly, I just want to get out of here.” She made a face. “Jesus. Does that make me horrible?”

“No. Shit, when I die, throw me in the ground and be done with it. All of this is just nauseating.” 

Ah, there was the Jade West Tori used to know. She laughed a little. 

“C’mon.” Jade gathered her purse with one hand and Tori’s elbow with the other. “Let’s go get a drink.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, really. I never knew you when you were of drinking age, I have to take my chance to see what drunk Tori is like.” Jade winked.

“Oh, God.” Tori fell in step beside Jade as they slipped out of the room and into the hallway. The air felt breathable again. “Drunk Tori gets way too friendly.”

“Does she?” Jade grinned, amused. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

Tori’s face flushed hot without a drop of alcohol in her.  
  


* * *

Less than an hour later, the pair were seated at a bar in downtown Los Angeles while the sun set. It was certainly a hole in the wall kind of place; despite living in LA her entire life, Tori did not recognize it. The clientele seemed to be the complete opposite of Tori and Jade--mostly older men playing pool--and the two women were certainly noticed as they entered, being so much younger and finely dressed. While Tori felt awkward and out of place, Jade swept through the place like she had been there a dozen times, and ordered a drink without missing a beat. It was the kind of confidence Tori had always admired about her when they were teenagers, and something Tori never managed to find in herself, even after all this time. 

Jade got herself a beer. Tori, who had never been much a drinker, blanked when it was her turn to order, blurting out the first thing that came to mind: a margarita.

The bartender, a very large, very hairy man, admittedly looked a little ridiculous preparing Tori’s dainty drink, complete with sugar on the rim and a quarter of a lime floating in the center. 

“I should have guessed you’d like the fruity stuff,” Jade teased, taking a long drink of her beer. “You were always kind of a wimp.”

Tori scoffed. “See, I don’t even need to go to our reunion next year. I’ve got the whole high school experience right here, insults and all.”

Jade laughed loudly. With the tension from the funeral behind them, Jade was much less stiff, leaning casually against the bartop. Conversely, Tori remained strained, hoping to chase some of the nerves with her drink. She wasn’t sure why she was still feeling so wound--partly from the still very fresh grief and partly because of Jade, she figured. Jade was so … grown up. So mature. So accomplished. Tori felt very small and inadequate in comparison. 

She licked the sugar from her glass as she took a small sip, a sweet soothing before the bitterness. 

“Do you still live here?” Jade asked, watching Tori closely, clearly entertained.

“Yes. Just Missy and I in our little studio.”

Jade’s eyebrows jumped. “Missy?”

“My cat.” Tori smiled. “Better than any roommate I’ve ever had.”

“You never did tell me what work you’re doing now.” 

Tori stiffened. “I’m, uh. Well.” Her face flushed, but it wasn’t from the alcohol. She wasn’t necessarily ashamed of her job; she enjoyed it, that’s why she did it. She was good at it and it made her happy, paid her bills. But it was nothing like the dreams she had had at Hollywood Arts or even college, and it didn’t even slightly measure up to what Jade had accomplished in the years since they last saw each other. “I’m a wedding singer,” Tori finally said, avoiding Jade’s eyes by staring into her drink. “That’s what I do most of the time, anyway. I perform in local plays every now and then. Been an extra in some things. But, yeah. Like I said, nothing as grand as what you’ve done.”

“Tori.”

Coaxed by her name, Tori looked up. Jade was smiling at her, not an ounce of pity in her eyes like Tori was expecting. 

“Are you happy? Do you like doing it?”

Tori smiled a little, thinking of all the wonderful memories she had formed over the years, all the precious moments she was able to witness, the friends she had made. She was a part of so many peoples’ most special days and it truly brought her great joy. “Yeah. It’s a much more simple life than I was expecting, you know, ten years ago, but …” Tori smiled brighter. “It’s a good life.”

Jade’s smile warmed her icy eyes. “Good.”

“What about you? Where are you living now?”

“I was in New York City while I was on Broadway, but I’ve been back in LA for a few months. I want to try my hand at film and this is the place to be.” She pointed at Tori with the tip of her beer. “Had I known you were still around, I would have hit you up sooner.”

Tori wondered if that was actually true. A lifetime ago, in high school, their friendship had been a precarious thing, grown on unstable ground. If not for Cat, Andre, and the others, the two of them would have probably never ran in the same circles.

But fate had a way of bringing people together. They had met, they had been friends. And, once again, they were brought back to each other in the most unlikely--and devastating--of circumstances. 

“Well, no one uses the Slap these days,” Tori said, grinning.

“Oh, God, the Slap.” Jade rolled her eyes and laughed. “What a time.”

Tori giggled. A comfortable silence settled between them while music continued around them, pool balls clicking together, loud conversations. Just a short while ago they had been in a quiet, solemn place of mourning, a sharp contrast to this boisterous atmosphere. Tori couldn’t help but feel like Cat would have wanted a party, a celebration of life, rather than a standard funeral. She supposed, though, a funeral was just as much for the surviving family and friends as it was for the deceased. 

Fuck. Tori cringed, swirling her drink in her hand. It was so unreal thinking of Cat like that. As dead. Gone. They should have seen each other at their reunion the following year. Cat should have been the life of the party, the most successful in their class, and maybe then Tori would have reconnected with her and rekindled their friendship. Who knew?

That’s all the rest of what should have been Cat’s life would be now: who knew. 

“I should have tried harder to stay in touch with her.” Tori’s voice was quiet, barely audible over the music. “Maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything, but. I don’t know.”

“We all had our own lives going on, Tori.” Jade finished her beer with a long gulp. She hit the bartop with the bottom of her bottle just loud enough to get the bartender’s attention, indicating she wanted another. “It’s sad, and it’s fucked up, but Cat made her own choices.”

Tori frowned. Even now, despite being the same age and watching Cat grow into a young woman all over the media, Cat was still a teenager in Tori’s mind. A naïve and gentle kid full of wonder and life and talent. 

All gone. Buried in a plot somewhere that the family didn’t want anyone else to know, because people could be so horrible. 

The bartender handed Jade another beer. “Dating anyone these days?” she asked, shifting the conversation away from the discomfort of Cat’s untimely death once more. 

Tori chuckled. “Not for a few years. I lived with an ex for a while but that ended badly, to the say the least.”

Jade nodded with understanding. “Boys don’t get much better from their teens to their twenties, do they?”

“Unfortunately, neither do some women.”

A pause. “What?” Jade stared blankly at her. 

Tori frowned. “What?”

“Your ex is a lady?”

Understanding now, Tori laughed. “Yeah. Why? Surprised?”

Jade laughed. “Hell no. I just didn’t know _you_ knew.”

Rolling her eyes, Tori took another drink. Her martini was more than halfway gone and a pleasant warmth was beginning to spread from her stomach outward to her extremities. “I’ve known since I was, like, five.”

“Oh yeah? Who was your first girl crush?”

Tori scoffed. “Britney Spears, obviously.”

Jade laughed again, this time so loudly it drew the attention of a nearby pool table. “Oh, that’s rich. Incredible.” She pondered quietly for a moment over her beer. “I think Demi Moore was mine.”

It was Tori’s turn to stare blankly at Jade. “What?”

“You think you got the market on bisexuality?” Jade snickered, meeting Tori’s shocked face. “Oh, come on! My favorite movie in high school was called _The Scissoring_ for Christ’s sake!”

“That movie was about a dead girl taking revenge on her friends!”

“Uh, yeah, and they were all _smoking hot_.”

The two burst into laughter. The whole bar was staring at them but neither of them noticed. When she caught her breath again, Tori downed the rest of her martini. 

“So your ex was bad news, huh?” Jade turned on her stool so she was facing Tori rather than the bar and placed one high-heeled foot on the bottom rung of Tori’s seat. 

Tori waved her empty glass in the air as if to dismiss the thought. “She was just really controlling. She didn’t like my job at all, being around partying people all the time. Didn’t like my friends, didn’t like the shows I did … I think, if I had let her, she would have made me into her perfect little housewife where I stayed all day and had no life.”

“Damn. I’m glad you got away from her.”

“Me, too.” Tori nudged Jade’s extended leg with her own. “Your turn.”

“What?”

“Who are you dating?”

“Pft, no one.” Jade flipped her hair behind her shoulder, baring the slope of her pale neck that Tori was definitely staring at. Why was she staring? “Too busy, too many plans.”

Tori’s eyes jumped back to Jade’s. “Film, right?” She thought for a moment. “The Scissoring 2?”

“Oh, a girl can dream, can’t she?” 

Tori laughed. “No time for love, then?”

Jade shook her head. “Like you, I’ve not had many good experiences.”

Tori was looking into her drink, but her stare was distant. “Oh, I’ve had plenty of good experiences. Just not my own, not yet.” She sighed, wistful, a huge smile on her face. “The best part of my job is seeing so many people in love all the time. It’s beautiful. It reminds me that my love story is still out there.”

“You told me you get friendly when you drink, not all lovey dovey. Besides, a wedding is just a moment, isn’t it? You don’t know what comes after that.”

Tori nodded. “Sure. It’s not the happy ending people make it out to be. It’s a whole new beginning. And you’re right, sometimes all the song and dance and vows are for nothing. And sometimes…” Tori smiled again. “It’s for life.”

Jade pretended to make a face of disgust. “Jesus, Tori. You’re gonna make me sick.”

Shrugging, Tori brought her empty glass to her mouth and licked some of the remaining sugar from the rim. She spun the stem in her finger to make a full rotation to make sure she got every last little crystal on her tongue. When she looked at Jade again, the woman was staring. Her face was flushed pink.

Tori was very, very warm. 

“You sure don’t look like you’re about to be sick.” Tori perked an eyebrow, suggestive, something she was not normally but it could be empowered by a drink or two. She expected Jade to back off, change the subject, or just leave outright.

Instead, Jade slipped from the stool, stood close to Tori, and placed a hand on the sitting woman’s thigh. There was that confidence again.

“I want to go back to your place.” Jade’s voice was firm.

Tori forgot how words worked, so she simply nodded. They paid their tabs in a hurry and rushed out the door. 

* * *

They weren’t even drunk. There was nothing to blame it on. 

Maybe they were trying to escape the sadness of a friend’s death, maybe they were just two lonely people at this time in their lives. 

Maybe there had been something there all along.

Tori barely got the apartment door closed before Jade was upon her, hands on her hips, pinning her against the wall with a knee between her spread legs. Jade bowed over Tori’s neck, teeth scraping against her pulsing jugular. She expected--craved--a harsh bite, but instead Jade left a trail of warm, damp kisses on her skin. And then she bit her.

“ _Meow_.”

Tori’s hand found the back of Jade’s neck, sliding into thick hair and making a light fist. Jade groaned, working her way up Tori’s neck, over her jaw, and to her mouth.

“ _Meow_.”

The kiss was hard and long. Jade’s hands wound around Tori’s waist and pulled her off the wall, flush against Jade’s chest, before descending farther to grab handfuls of Tori’s ass. 

“ _Meoooow_.”

The kiss broke but they remained close, both panting hard. Tori was the first to crack, laughing breathlessly. “Sorry.”

Jade grinned. “It is Missy’s apartment too, after all.”

The women separated. Tori was lightheaded and woozy, holding onto Jade as she found the source of the meowing. A white ragdoll with blue saucers for eyes stared up at them from the floor. 

“Are you hungry, Missy? Is that it?”

The cat responded with another impatient meow. 

“Make yourself at home,” Tori said, waving at the rest of the small but very tidy apartment. “Do you want something to drink?”

Jade deposited her bag on the counter and removed her shoes. “Water, thanks.”

While Tori took care of Missy and got them both a fresh glass of water, her mind was somewhere else entirely--still pinned to the wall, in fact. Things had escalated extremely quickly in the last few hours. Tori had never gone home with someone this shortly after meeting. 

But they hadn’t just met. Tori knew her. Well, knew who she had been, anyway. Neither of them were the same people they’d been in high school, but who was? This was still the Jade she knew and a Jade she didn’t know at the same time. 

And damn if she didn’t want to desperately know this Jade. 

Her heart was still racing when she joined Jade on the couch in the living area. Above them was the loft where Tori’s bed was, which she noticed Jade seemed particularly interested in. 

Lord have mercy. Was she going to make it through the night with her heart still in her chest?

“Thanks.” Jade took the offered water and had a drink. “Your apartment is super cute.”

Tori blushed. “Thanks. It’s not much.”

“It’s everything you need, right?”

“Yeah. And what I can afford.” She pulled her knees to her chest. “I never did make it the way you and Cat did,” she said, suddenly embarrassed. “But I’m doing well, I think, I’m happy, I--”

“Tori, you don’t have to defend your life to me.” Jade set her water on the table in front of them. “There is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Tori didn’t look convinced. “You were on Broadway, Jade. You had big plans and you accomplished them. I finished school and then I just … stopped.”

Jade watched her carefully. “Did something happen?”

Tori searched the walls for an answer. “No. Yes. Sort of. I just … I couldn’t handle it. My anxiety got so bad there for a while that I barely left my dorm. I almost didn’t graduate college. And when I finally did, I didn’t have the motivation for anything, I was too scared.” Tori found her way back to Jade’s face. “I struggled for a long time. I got through it, you know. I’m on medication and stuff. And it took me a while to figure out the balance between what I wanted and what I can handle. This--” she indicated the apartment and her life within it, “isn’t my name in lights, it’s not fame and fortune, like I wanted when I was a kid. But it’s good and I can handle it. So. Here I am.”

Jade stared at her for a long time in thought. She took a deep breath and let it all out before she spoke again. “Cat’s name in lights didn’t bring her much happiness, I don’t think.”

All the warmth seemed to be sucked from the room. “Yeah,” Tori agreed solemnly. “What about you? Are you happy?”

Jade considered this briefly. “I mean, yeah. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, I’m ready for the next chapter. Still searching for that love story you seem to know so much about.”

“I thought you didn’t have time for any of that,” Tori teased.

Jade’s smile collected at one corner of her mouth, then faded altogether. “Life is short. You know? I guess we have to try and make time.”

Tori placed her drink on the table beside Jade’s and watched her for several long moments. “Did you have a crush on me in high school? Is that why you were so mean to me?”

“I was mean to you because you were a dork. And, also, I thought you were after my boyfriend.”

With a laugh, Tori extended a leg and nudged Jade’s thigh with her foot. “I might have been after your boyfriend until I saw you.” The blush that raced to Jade’s hairline made Tori laugh again. “Alas, you were such a bully, we will never know what crazy teenage romance we could have had--”

“Oh, shut up,” Jade managed around her laughter.

“Make me,” Tori shot back, and that’s all it took. 

In a blur, they were shoving each other up the stairs to the loft, ducking under the low ceiling, and diving into Tori’s bed. They fumbled with zippers and stockings and bra hooks until they were both finally bare. Jade’s cool, pale hands roamed Tori’s warmer, darker skin, across the flat plane of her stomach, over her breasts. They kissed, hot and hungry, the taste of their drinks still in their mouths. 

“You taste like sugar,” Jade panted, going in for another kiss, her tongue claiming Tori’s mouth. “Fuck, you taste good.”

“Just wait until you go a little south,” Tori said in broken breaths, which lit a devilish fire in Jade’s blue eyes. She disappeared. 

The following sensations chased every thought from Tori’s mind except _good fucking god damn_.

Jade’s fingers joined her tongue for a series of closely spaced orgasms, until Tori’s legs were trembling and she had to practically beg Jade to stop. Tori gave her no time to wipe her mouth off, instead stealing those lips in another kiss and licking her clean. 

“Lie down,” Tori said, and when Jade complied, she scooted off the edge of the bed, opened a drawer, and reappeared with a purple vibrator. Tori slid between Jade’s legs and slipped a hand over a trimmed mound to seek the slickness underneath. “So wet and ready for me,” Tori half moaned, pressing the tip of the vibrator against Jade’s swollen clit before turning it on. Jade’s body spasmed, hands fisted in the sheets, back arching. 

“Oh, _fuck_ , yes.”

Tori teased her for a while longer before finally sliding the vibrator into Jade’s vagina. Tori worked the vibrating toy in and out of her while crouched over to suck on her clit, not planning to stop until Jade couldn’t cum anymore. 

Jade came and came and begged for another, another, and Tori happily indulged her, over and over again. They became drunk only on each other, until late into the night, when they were so exhausted that they fell asleep with all the lights still on. 

* * *

  
Tori awoke with the overwhelming need to pee. She moved slowly and quietly so as not to rise the still sleeping Jade, and it was sitting on the toilet that her senses came back to her. 

She had sex with Jade last night. Jade had sex with her last night. Her and her old high school bully--friend? Frenemy?--had sex. 

And goddamn, it was so good. 

She washed her hands, ran her hands through her hair, and looked in the mirror. Her makeup from the day before was smudged all around her eyes and her lipstick was noticeably smeared. 

Tori licked her lips. Jade lingered on them.

She took the time to wash her face before she left the bathroom, grabbing her robe as she went. Missy was waiting patiently for her breakfast, watching Tori like she knew too much. 

“Listen,” Tori whispered as she set Missy’s food down in front of her. “She’s really hot. Give me a break.”

“Oh, so you’re that kind of cat lady.”

Tori jumped and spun around. Jade stood at the bottom of the stairs in her underwear and one of Tori’s shirts, an old crew shirt from a play she’d been in. Maybe it should have bothered her that Jade just went rummaging through her stuff, but it didn’t. Not at all. In fact, it made Tori’s heart beat faster. 

“Morning,” Tori said, smiling.

Jade looked Tori up and down slowly, her smile struggling at the edges like Jade was consciously trying to stifle its intensity. It didn’t work. “Good morning.”

“Coffee?”

“Please.”

Tori fixed them two cups--one black, one a little too sweet--before joining Jade on the couch, much like she had the night before. Except this time, Tori sat a little closer, and then Jade moved closer still, until her arm was wrapped around Tori and they were leaning into each other, warm and content. 

“You remembered how I like my coffee?” Jade smiled over the lip of her mug. 

“Some things never change.” Tori smiled too, looking out the window. Los Angeles had been awake for a long time before them. “And some things are changed forever, aren’t they?” 

She thought of Cat and the world without her in it. It was true that Tori and Cat were only old friends at the time of her death, but Tori knew the world would be darker without her, less joyful, with much less song. Tori wanted her to be there; the three of them, together, reunited after all this time. It would have been wonderful. 

Tori rested her head on Jade’s chest. Jade’s free hand combed through her hair. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. 

Cat’s death, as tragic and painful as it was, had given Tori and Jade a chance to reconnect. It didn’t justify anything, it didn’t make it any better, but if anyone could have seen the silver lining in such a thing, it would have been Cat. 

Tori knew it would shatter the illusion that this morning didn’t have to end, but she spoke anyway. “I see people on their happiest days and never after that, not usually. I don’t know what happens to them after I stop singing.” Tori withdrew far enough to find Jade’s eyes. “Is this just a moment? Does it end after this?”

Jade searched Tori’s face in silence. She took Tori’s cup from her hands and put both mugs on the table, then studied her again. Her hands raised to gather Tori’s face in them, heat from the coffee still pooled in her palms. 

Jade stared at her like she was trying to determine if she was a drink worth tasting, if the sugar on the rim was sweet enough for what might follow. 

“I want to know what comes after,” Jade said, just as firm and sure as she had been the night before. 

Tori’s chest stuttered as she caught her breath and then she kissed her and kissed her and kissed her. 


End file.
